Adjournments and alternatives

Four days before a scheduled hearing to give evidence as primary prosecution witness in a road rage incident, Ms Venner was admitted to hospital for emergency surgery. Dutifully, she notified the informant that she would not be available, who then, one day before the hearing, notified the defendant that the police would apply for an adjournment and, in the alternative, would apply under s65 of the Evidence Act for the court to receive her police statement. These are the facts underlying DPP v Easwaralingam.

Surprisingly in those circumstances, the defendant opposed both applications, the Magistrate knocking back the adjournment application because